Salman Rushdie,

In 2022, Sir Salman Rushdie found himself on a stage in Chautauqua, Pennsylvania, discussing the importance of protecting the freedom of writers – a subject upon which he is uniquely placed to speak, despite feeling that he had moved on from the fatwa imposed on him following the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses. When a man emerged from the audience and subjected Rushdie to a 27-second knife attack, the threat that had been hanging over him for years finally became real.